Handbook of Information Security Management
(Publisher: CRC Press LLC)
Author(s): Hal Tipton and Micki Krause, Consulting Editors
ISBN: 0849399475
Publication Date: 01/01/98

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Proposed OODBMS Security Models

Currently only a few models use discretionary access control measures in secure object-oriented data base management systems.

Explicit Authorizations

The ORION authorization model permits access to data on the basis of explicit authorizations provided to each group of users. These authorizations are classified as positive authorizations because they specifically allow a user access to an object. Similarly, a negative authorization is used to specifically deny a user access to an object.

The placement of an individual into one or more groups is based on the role that the individual plays in the organization. In addition to the positive authorizations that are provided to users within each group, there are a variety of implicit authorizations that may be granted based on the relationships between subjects and access modes.

Data-Hiding Model

A similar discretionary access control secure model is the data-hiding model proposed by Dr. Elisa Bertino of the Universita’ di Genova. This model distinguishes between public methods and private methods.

The data-hiding model is based on authorizations for users to execute methods on objects. The authorizations specify which methods the user is authorized to invoke. Authorizations can only be granted to users on public methods. However, the fact that a user can access a method does not automatically mean that the user can execute all actions associated with the method. As a result, several access controls may need to be performed during the execution, and all of the authorizations for the different accesses must exist if the user is to complete the processing.

Similar to the use of GRANT statements in traditional relational data base management systems, the creator of an object is able to grant authorizations to the object to different users. The “creator” is also able to revoke the authorizations from users in a manner similar to REVOKE statements. However, unlike traditional RDBMS GRANT statements, the data-hiding model includes the notion of protection mode. When authorizations are provided to users in the protection mode, the authorizations actually checked by the system are those of the creator and not the individual executing the method. As a result, the creator is able to grant a user access to a method without granting the user the authorizations for the methods called by the original method. In other words, the creator can provide a user access to specific data without being forced to give the user complete access to all related information in the object.

Other DAC Models for OODBMS Security

Rafiul Ahad has proposed a similar model that is based on the control of function evaluations. Authorizations are provided to groups or individual users to execute specific methods. The focus in Ahad’s model is to protect the system by restricting access to the methods in the data base, not the objects. The model uses proxy functions, specific functions, and guard functions to restrict the execution of certain methods by users and enforce content-dependent authorizations.

Another secure model that uses authorizations to execute methods has been presented by Joel Richardson. This model has some similarity to the data-hiding model’s use of GRANT/REVOKE-type statements. The creator of an object can specify which users may execute the methods within the object.

A final authorization-dependent model emerging from OODBMS security research has been proposed by Dr. Eduardo B. Fernandez of Florida Atlantic University. In this model the authorizations are divided into positive and negative authorizations. The Fernandez model also permits the creation of new authorizations from those originally specified by the user through the use of the semantic relationships in the data.

Dr. Naftaly H. Minsky of Rutgers University has developed a model that limits unrestricted access to objects through the use of a view mechanism similar to that used in traditional relational systems data base management systems. Minsky’s concept is to provide multiple interfaces to the objects within the data base. The model includes a list of laws, or rules, that govern the access constraints to the objects. The laws within the data base specify which actions must be taken by the system when a message is sent from one object to another. The system may allow the message to continue unaltered, block the sending of the message, send the message to another object, or send a different message to the intended object.

Although the discretionary access control models do provide varying levels of security for the information within the data base, none of the DAC models effectively addresses the problem of the authorizations provided to users. A higher level of protection within a secure OO data base model is provided through the use of mandatory access control.

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